The Duke's Daughter -Wattys2014 Collector's Dream Award Winner-

Chapter Sixty Four

William Kent set the dinner tray aside and wiped his face and hands with his napkin. He had needed a few moments to absorb everything he had read in the last few hours. True to his Kathleen, she had not once blamed him for her abduction, or for the fact that he had never come for her.

She had spoken mostly of what she imagined she was missing back at home. She spoke of wishing she could see her children and begged him to tell them how much she loved them and missed them. She wrote to him about her love for him, what she would give to just feel his arms around her one more time.

Many of her words had brought memories flooding into his mind, a few that he hadn't thought of for years.
Just thinking about the things he had read brought fresh tears to his eyes. He didn't feel worthy of her devotion. He could have done better with the children. He knew his love for them couldn't make up for Kathleen's not being there. He had devoted most of his time trying to find any clue at all that would lead him to believe she was alive.

So he could give his children their mother back. In doing that, he would have his life back.

For he hadn't been living these last fifteen years, he had just been residing in a state of hunting and waiting.

Hunting for her.

Waiting for her.

Having these letters, written in her hand, and knowing she had been found made him hunger for the sight of her all the more. There were fifteen years worth of letters stashed in the bottom desk drawer, and even with all that he had read this afternoon, he had only gotten through the first six months.
He brought a hand to his temples pressing with his fingertips in a circular motion. His head ached from shedding so many tears. Perhaps he should rest for the night. He would have the entire voyage back home to devour his beloved wife's letters.

He stood from the table and made his way to the bed. The bed his wife had occupied for the last fifteen years. As he drew the cover back her smell assaulted his senses. His eyes closed as his mind screamed her name. Even after all this time the essence of her was enough to soothe him as well as make his blood warm.

The Duke pulled a pillow from the mattress and rubbed his face against it's softness. It seemed like it 'twas the softest pillow he'd ever felt. A smile crossed his face as a memory crossed his mind. Everything had always had a place with Kathleen, and everyone always had something more productive that they could be doing. He shook his head as he placed the pillow back upon the bed.

She was alive. Truly alive! And on her way home. Perhaps she would be waiting for him when he returned.. Or perhaps, if they left at first light, they could take the Northern route and be waiting when they arrived home, current and weather permitting.

With a heart full of many mixed emotions, the Duke readied himself for bed and slipped between the sweet scented, silken sheets.

****

Derek looked to his first mate as they rode the last boat into shore. All of the cargo had been saved and the damage had been assessed. It seemed the Lady could be repaired, a seam in the hull had split. If they tarred it well enough, and emptied the water from the bilge, she should be well enough to make it to port, where she could be dry docked and fully repaired. The crewmen and cabin boys would begin the work in the morning.

Tonight, however, there were very different plans afoot.

His gaze left his anxious first mate and swept the beach. His message must have gotten to the Duchess. There were torches, most likely made from branches with oil soaked cloth tied about one end, scattered along the beach. A larger fire had been constructed farther out from the camp than Cook's small fire, and logs had been rolled around it to form seats. It looked as if a banquet was spread across Cook's work station and a few crewmen were tapping a barrel of rum.

About halfway to shore, Derek looked down the southern beach to see Bailey, strung up on a palm tree. His ever present guard 'Tiny' sat in the shade twenty feet or so away. Derek raised a hand in the air, saw that his wave was returned by Tiny, stating all was well with him. Narrowing his eyes Bailey's direction, Derek vowed the man would never harm another soul ever again. Maybe he would walk over in a while and assure Bailey of this fact himself. He returned his gaze to the beach, trying to find Arianna in the midst of the others milling about, but he did not see her. Maybe she was in one of the tents.

A few more minutes saw the boat beached upon the sand. Derek and Alejandro left the men to move the last of the cargo up to the Duchess' designated spot and were soon met by the Duchess herself.

"Trent, if I might have a word with you.."

"Aye, your grace."

Alejandro greeted the Duchess as well, then left them to find his wife.

"A crate of fabrics spilled upon the beach and they were ruined by the salt water."

Derek shifted his weight from one foot to the other, "How unfortunate."

"Not really."

A smile came to Derek's face, of course the Duchess already had a plan for the ruined items. "How so, your grace?"

"Well, with the celebration planned for this eve, I thought the ladies may enjoy fashioning sarongs out of them. The furs and such can be used for comfort in the tents, and any others ruined can be used for shade, among other things."

"By all means, your grace. If they are ruined, then I have no further use for them."

"Thank you, Captain."

"No, thank you, your grace. Your touch around this camp has kept everyone calm and content."

The Duchess quirked a brow, "Calm and content are not the words I hear when they think I am not listening."

Derek laughed, "Yet no one complains in a voice louder than a grumble and I do not have a mutiny on my hands."

The Duchess looked out to sea, "I believe they simply recognize that there is no point arguing over who will captain a ship that cannot sail."

Derek laughed again, "The Lady will be fit to sail within three days time."

"Oh?"

"Aye. Enough tar will see us to port."

The Duchess looked uncertainly back out to the ship as it hung on the reef, "If you are sure, Captain. I much prefer being stranded on a tropical island to drowning though. Please keep that in mind."

"I shall, your grace." He paused, an indecisive look filtered into his eyes before he spoke again. "Might I ask a favor of you, your grace?"

"You may ask, boy." The Duchess replied with a quirked brow.

"Would you keep Arianna entertained for the next hour?"

"I'm sure I could manage that. Just be sure not to make me regret helping you."

Derek gave her a disarming grin, "I shall do my best."

With a laugh, the Duchess waved him away, "Off with you then, boy, I shall begin my decoy work now."

"Thank you."

After watching him disappear into his tent and emerge with arms carrying a rather large bundle gathered in a blanket, the Duchess watched him slip past the tree line. the Duchess made her way to the tent that had been erected for her daughter and tapped against the taunt sailcloth that made up the walls. Arianna pulled up the makeshift door and smiled as she waved her mother in.

"What is this?" Arianna asked, pointing to the crimson velvet her mother held.

"Your gown for the evening, daughter." The Duchess replied with a wink.

"Gown? Mother, that is but a bolt of fabric. I have no needles or thread or even time to fashion something out of it."

The Duchess looked over her shoulder at her daughter as she spread the velvet across the cot. "Do you prefer to run around in boys breeches then?"

Arianna looked to the velvet. 'Twas slightly crushed and marked by the salt water, but 'twas still the most luxurious piece of fabric she had seen since the gaudy silk costume the Admiral had forced on her upon his ship. She ran her hand over the material and lifted her eyes to her mother.

"You have a plan, then?"

"Aye, daughter. Fetch your jewels."

****

Derek stepped back and surveyed the fruits of his labor. Everything was exactly how he had pictured it when he began. Now, his only obstacle would be getting Arianna to accompany him to see it.

With a smile, Derek turned from the pool and made his way back to the beach. 'Twas his responsibility to begin the festivities and he could not wait to do so. Tonight would make everything right. He would set Arianna down and bare his heart to her. He loved her, she consumed his every thought, her smile brightened even the darkest of days, and he had simply had enough of this rift between them.

She was going to be his wife and damn the rest of the world if he would not enjoy every minute of it. No other woman was anything like his Arianna. She was soft and genuine, caring and kind. Yet in the same moment she could be as harsh as the seas, as deadly beautiful as a hurricane. She was his angel, his siren, all woman, yet alluringly innocent. Everything he had previously believed impossible to find in one woman.

As he traversed onto the sand and out of the tree line, alluring was definitely a thought in his mind, but innocence did not fit the picture before him whatsoever.

Arianna stood upon the sand conversing with Alejandro and Carmelita. She was wrapped in crimson velvet. The velvet caressed one shoulder, leaving the other deliciously bare before it wound around her bust, midriff and hips and ran loosely down around her legs to form a skirt that fell just below the knee. Her ankles, bare but for the sparkling gems she wore around them, caught his attention for more than a few moments. She turned slightly, her back more fully to him and he saw that the length that came over her shoulder was pinned to the small of her back, leaving the curve of her derriere draped temptingly within his view. Jeweled broaches were strategically pinned to keep the fabric in place and small diamond shaped openings were left between the tight wraps at the small of her waist, exposing the smooth skin beneath.

The firelight played upon the jewels and the velvet, it seemed to make her all but glow. With the waves behind her, he could easily imagine her a creature of myth, calling him to his doom.

And then she turned to him, her hair freely flowing around her, except where it was pinned back behind one ear. A large red flower perched in the curls, but not even nature's beauty could compare to that of Arianna's smile.

She motioned for him to join them and he was moving towards her before he had even processed the mechanics of the legs beneath him.

At his approach, Alejandro and Carmelita turned to see who Arianna was beckoning to.

"Ah, Captain, I have been wondering if I should start a search for you." Alejandro welcomed him into their circle. "You need a drink, my friend. The Duchess has concocted a punch from the rum, coconut and some fruits found here on the island. It is definitely worth trying."

"I would not be adverse to giving it a taste." Derek replied, as his gaze roamed Arianna's shoulder, and the curls that cascaded over her bare skin. She had an inkling he was not speaking about the libation. The light burning in his eyes as they roamed her skin seemed to set her aflame. She felt her cheeks warming also, and tried to hide her blush.

Drat! It was happening again! Enough with this blushing already! Arianna took a deep breath and composed herself.

"Then I shall get you something to wash it down with." Alejandro chuckled at his own attempt at humor, then smiling at his wife tucked under his arm, "I shall return momentarily, my love." He gave her a quick kiss, just enough to have her leaning after him as he walked away.

Derek smiled, recognizing the signs of a couple who only waited for the right opportunity to reacquaint themselves on a baser level.

He returned his attention to Arianna, "My Lady, I would ask for a chance to stroll the beach and speak with you privately."

"I would like that a great deal, Derek", she replied with a shy smile.

He was heartened by her response, he wasn't sure if she was still upset with him from earlier, he just knew he didn't want to upset her again.

Alejandro returned with Derek's mug and after giving it to him, he wrapped his arm around Carmelita again.

"We have decided to walk a bit, my friend, would you and Carmelita care to join us and see what is going on with that small group down the way?"

Arianna looked north, up their crescent beach, halfway between the rocks that divided the beaches and the place they now stood, there was a group of all the children, a few crewmen, and Betsy. They were on blankets spread on the sand.

The group of four wandered over to find the sailors pointing to the stars. "And if you follow the two bottom stars on the large dipper, all the way across, you run into the North Star."

Derek heard the lesson being given and looked around, finding Roman gazing at the North Star with all the rest.

He slid his hand around Arianna's waist and gestured farther up the beach. She nodded and they slowly wandered away from the group absorbed in the twinkling lights. "I would know how you fared after your abduction, you have not had a chance to tell me of your time with Admiral Miser. I see you are whole but are you alright?" Derek inquired of her.

"A lot better off than he is." She laughed softly.

"Would you tell me about it?" He asked.

"Only if you tell me how it was for you after being shot." She looked at him with concern, yet a bit impishly. They both recognized this game of hers. The trading of truths game that seemed to work for them before.

"Agreed." His smile was confirmed by his eyes. They twinkled at her, amused and intrigued, only waiting for her to start this banter she seemed to enjoy so much.

"Miser.." She began, the impish tilt still about her lips, "Miser held me in his brig for some time. He then brought me topside and left me with no choice but to wear a whore's costume." Her nose wrinkled at the thought of the gaudy dress. She drew in breath to continue, but paused. Waiting for his admission before she continued. She could see by his face that he was already drawn into her story.

Derek's mind was running ahead of itself. He was no fool, he knew what Miser's next move in her story would be. Her smile let him hope that she had emerged unscathed. He focused his mind on the story he was to tell her.

"I heard your call for me, that day, and gave chase. The Admiral knicked me once here," He undid his cuff and bared his arm, showing her the small healed wound that looked more like a burn than a bullet wound, "and he hit me more fully here." He let his sleeve fall and pulled at the neck of his shirt revealing the round bullet wound through his shoulder, near his collarbone.

"Oh, my." Arianna breathed as she ran her fingertips softly over the wound. Her eyes lifted to his and he noticed that they were no longer walking, but standing facing each other near the rocks. "Thank you for coming after me."

"I had no choice." He stated with anger in his eyes. But for once, Arianna could tell that his anger was not pointed at her. "I tried to set sail the very next morning, but Alejandro would not have it. He conspired with the doctor to feed me laudanum and keep me unconscious two more days."

Derek grabbed her hand as she made her way into the shallows around the rocks. As she turned to him with question, he handed her his mug, before he swept her into his arms and carried her safely to the beach on the other side.

Arianna did not protest, she had not truly relished the idea of walking barefoot through the surf, when she could not see the rocks the water concealed. Instead, she rested her head against his shoulder and looped an arm about his neck, his mug resting atop his other shoulder.

"Miser insisted over dinner that I be his mistress."

She felt the muscles in Derek's arms tighten around her. "And?" He prodded, his voice gruff.

"I stabbed him through the cheek with my fork."

A chuckle rumbled through Derek's chest before it reached his lips and Arianna felt it all along her side.

"That's my girl." He said, as he slipped his arm from beneath her feet and let her body slide down the length of his. He kept one arm around her and took his mug from her with the other.

Her smile was brilliant, she liked it when he called her his. And 'twas only a matter of time before she truly would be.

She quirked her brow and he obliged, as it was his turn. "Alejandro was pathetic, moaning about how it was all his fault, how once again, he had failed you. I finally could take no more, and told him he was making me feel worse as you were my betrothed, that if he had let you down, I was doubly guilty. Of course, in reassuring me, he forgot his own self pity for a while and I found a bit of relief."

"He ordered that I take a hundred lashes."

Derek's arm was tight around her again, even though her feet were firmly upon the sand. His hand lifted to brush her exposed shoulder blade. "And how did you escape that?"

"By accepting another proposition."

The muscle in Derek's cheek twitched, she knew she had better continue.

"Thomas Bell was to carry out the punishment. He offered me safe haven from the whip, and the Admiral, if I but claimed to rather be his mistress."

Derek did not reply as red hot anger flowed through his veins. He set his mug on the sand. He turned to make his way back around the rocks.

"Derek! Wait! He saved me!"

"That man was aboard my ship, Arianna!" He was facing her, standing in the surf and looking more threatening than she had ever seen him before.

"He did not touch me! He gave me his bunk and slept upon the floor. Never once did he even attempt to touch me!" She was near hysterics. The last thing she wanted was for Derek to thrash Mr. Bell for keeping her safe.

Derek's anger cooled as the tears in her eyes registered in his brain. He made his way back to her, pulling her against his chest once more.

"I'm sorry, Angel."

"It's.." She pulled back to wipe at her eyes. "It's alright. He was a godsend, Derek. He said I reminded him of his little sister. He said that since he had not been able to help his sister, he had wanted to help me."

"Remind me to thank the man upon the morrow."

"I will." She smiled up at him, her lashes slightly damp.

Derek stood looking down into her eyes for a moment before he could no longer resist. His lips dipped to hers.

Arianna's grip on his shoulders tightened as she pressed herself against him. His kiss was soft and gentle and he pulled away much sooner than Arianna would have liked.

"I've missed you, Angel."

She smiled up at him. "I have missed you, too."

That boyishly charming smile appeared, as he released her and took her hand.

"Come, I have something to show you."